Deposit ₹2,000 cr by October, Supreme Court tells Jaypee

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed Jaiprakash Associates — the parent company of ailing real estate firm Jaypee Infratech — to pay up ~2,000 crore by October 27, and sought the formulation of a plan to protect affected homebuyers within 45 days.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra also restrained the top officials of the two companies from travelling abroad without its permission.

“We are not concerned about the company’s interests. It is our constitutional duty to see that all homebuyers, most of whom belong to lower middle-class families, get their money. The company can dr own in the Bay of Bengal (for all we care),” the bench said, before ordering Jaypee Infratech to hand over its management to the National Company Law Tribunal-appointed insolvency resolution professional (IRP).

The Supreme Court bench partially modified a September 4 directive that put on hold the tribunal’s August 8 order appointing the IRP and letting it take over the Jaypee Infratech management.

The tribunal had restrained the realty firm from alienating its properties after IDBI, the lead bank in a consortium of lenders, moved a petition that the company had defaulted on a ~526crore loan.

The apex court’s interim order came on pleas filed by homebuyers who felt that the insolvency proceedings would leave them in the lurch, without any hope of recovering their money from the firm.

DIRECTORS AND MD OF JAYPEE INFRATECH AND ITS HOLDING COMPANY, JAYPEE ASSOCIATES, RESTRAINED FROM TRAVELLING ABROAD